North Carolina: Watering Hole of the Insane

I'm not surprised at the passage of Amendment One, to be completely honest. This is the state that told blacks and whites who they couldn't marry until 1971. In point of fact, you could replace every reference to gays in this Amendment and change it to references to mixed races and it would read like it came from half a century ago.

Why is Gay Marriage so important? Why is Amendment #1 in North Carolina one of the most bigoted and ignominious things ever to be put into legal practice this century? Who can say who is right or who is wrong?

This is the simplest and most direct answer: You cannot base discrimination on nonsensical laws.

A leper – no matter what form he takes – will always be ostracized from society, for they are dangerous to the health of it. Pedophiles, rapists, murderers, thieves, all manner of violence…these and others are necessary evils that occur and must be exercised from the group without hesitation. This is sensible, and a necessary discrimination.

However – a pedophile can get legally married. A murderer can legally tie the knot. Jail marriages happen all the time.

To base such exclusion on -->nonsensical<-- reasons, such as race, creed or sexual orientation is nothing short of BIGOTRY. There is no other excuse, and it is purely religious-driven.

Revoke the right to marry based on any religion that begins with the letter "M", or perhaps a law that forbids marriage to any woman who has seen an episode of "Jersey Shore", but not one episode of "Firefly", or hey, howzabout anyone who is deemed NOT a virgin cannot be wed, no matter what, and you'll see All you religious nutbars marching in the streets WITHIN THE HOUR. "It's not fair!" you'll cry, waving your pathetically misspelled hand-painted signs in the air like so much flotsam for the illiterate, "We're being oppressed! Our rights are being trampled on!"

I'll tell you: The religious should have been the fucking FIRST people to oppose this amendment; they should have jumped on it and torn it to shreds on the factory floor. The respect, support and unity for believers would have shot through the roof at a rate that would have been uncontrollable. I wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

I once had a girlfriend whose mother was an extremely devout Catholic. She believed the only "real" marriages were performed in the Catholic Church by a Catholic priest. I know of a radio minister who thinks the only legitimate marriages are between Christians. I've met people who think that it's an abomination before God when people of different races marry. You people can't be in the same damn room for ten minutes without going to war over the minutiae of what God supposedly meant in his written-by-a-human "word".

Who am I to say who's right or wrong? Who the fuck are YOU PEOPLE?

So listen up, I'll only say this once:

There are gays this very minute in the military, suffering and dying to protect and defend a right that they themselves don't enjoy. They have done so since the dawn of the American military. They are doing a job that, quite frankly, I would not under ANY circumstances. I have no use for militaries, war or combat. I decide when and how I kill, no one else. I won't – for ANY reason – defend the flag. Fuck a whole truckload of wars, you won't find me in one.

NOR WOULD ANY OF YOU…If you had to do so for a right you weren't privileged to have. Send the troops out to defend Jim Crow laws, let me know how many of you would TAKE A FUCKING BULLET for that? Or, to be more contemporary, stand in front of a firing squad to defend gay rights in Africa.

Homosexuals do this EVERY DAY. Without complaint, I might add, except the desire to be counted on the same list as every one else.

To say "There are no laws left standing that discriminate against gay couples" is disingenuous at best, and ALL of you know this. Whenever you cull a fourth (probably more) of humanity off, deny them basic civil rights and fundamental living entitlements, you tell the rest of the world; "It's okay to treat these people like they're not really human. Like they're not really a part of society. See, we've already taken the first step."

You give permission to the people of your society to act like animals, and turn a blind eye when they attack the innocent. You'll march into Hell itself to stop an abortion, but you'll turn that apple cart around as fast as your bigoted little legs can carry you when true innocence and injustice is happening.

God forbid you open your eyes to the plight of your fellow man. Wouldn't want the almighty to be anything but the petty, raging asshole you all make him out to be, now would we?

So why is it important to fight this on both the moral and religious front? Because they are united AGAINST everyone else, despite their proclamations to the contrary. This is an excerpt from an interview with George Bush Sr.:

Interviewer: "Surely you recognize the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are atheists?"

Bush: "No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."

Atheists shouldn't be considered citizens. Say that with the same tone as "Niggers shouldn't be allowed to roam free with proper white folk", and you'll have the correct level of bile in your mouth that WE feel.

And this Amendment is a first step, for it only allows a foot in the door to bring back the religious dark ages, those times of fear when people like me couldn't walk down the hall of my middle school as a kid for fear of being called a "Devil Worshipper", and being spat on for my disbelief.

Whenever religion is holding the reins, it is NEVER for humanity. It happened before. It's happening *now*. The hangman never pauses long, he looks hungrily for the next throat to loop.

I can hear it now: "It appears to me as if everyone's beliefs are supposed to be respected and honored and allowed EXCEPT for those of the Christian faith."

No, you are so far out of the ball park on that, you could moonwalk blindfolded across homeplate without worrying. This bias comes from a lifetime of indoctrination – Christianity (let's just say "religion") has had an iron gauntlet on the reins of power in this country since it's inception, and since the conclusion of World War 2 has been slowly losing it's grip. It had no business being in control of such things, particularly for the run it enjoyed, and now what we're seeing is a leveling of the playing field…FINALLY. Nobody is trying to oppress religion, but we ARE trying to put it in its proper less-than status in society. It only seems like oppression because we're no longer turning to the Bible for legal matters…which is as it should have been from the start.

If there were laws in place that prevented YOU from becoming married because you were a Christian, you'd be completely up in arms about it. Or how about all the states in America that make it illegal to worship?

Oh, there aren't any? That's because Christians aren't persecuted. You're finally being told that you don't get to have exclusive access to indoctrinating people, and it's about time. People are waking up and are finally starting to push back.

I don't see it's necessary to demonize you (the Theists) for your beliefs, but I *DO* believe it's absolutely necessary to look accusingly at your religion, the anchor shackled around your leg that you're happily offering the rest of the world, and ask why this dated, obsolete piece of philosophy still guides your morality.

I believe it's irresponsible not to point it out, at the very least.

I hope that this Amendment is a last-gasp action of a dying breed. I hope in a decade or two, it will be bred out of Congress, hopefully out of society. At least, it's raising awareness in the young about who they elect, and the effect it will have on their well-being. Because some of the kids of those people who voted for this amendment are indeed gay. And they will grow up in the shadow of their bigoted parents, watching with disdain as they enter the time of their lives when they are left in control of the wheel.

I hope future generations don't look back on us and think we were all fucking insane. I'd like to show the rest of the world that not all of us were monsters.